Title Info

seen: 1-26 of 26

type: TV

grade: worthy

genre: magic_war

source: digital fansub

form: sub

dur: 20

people: CLAMP

made: 2001

Review created: Fri Jul 2 23:21:20 EST 2004

mod: none

Children, and the young at heart, have an endless fascination with
artificial alter-ego's, of which dolls are perhaps the most obvious.
They'll give the doll a name, a personality and imagine it fighting
for it's life in arena death-matches...okay, so perhaps the last is
a little bit unusual, but CLAMP is hoping you won't notice.

Synopsis

The story begins, as do so many of these titles, with a young girl
arriving in Tokyo. Small in size, cautious in nature and in addition
both kind and conscientious. She's quite reserved, but there's the
familiar shoujo feeling of both strength and weakness locked within
her heart. Indeed the reason she decided to travel to Tokyo for
high school, leaving her friends behind, is so that she could be
closer to her mother, who she's not seen since she was a child, her
mother apparently being too "busy" with work.

One can only imagine her feeling small, lost and lonely as she emerges
onto the streets of Tokyo. The first she thing she notices however
is a huge projection TV showing a battle between a beautiful white
angel, wings spread, and another fighter. Apparently this is Angelic
layer, the craze of the moment in which dolls follow the orders of
their controllers and fight each other. She is entranced, drawn for
some reason to the bravery, courage and beauty of the white angel.
Indeed, with the help of a curiously interested stranger, she soon
finds herself entering into the world of Angelic Layer. A world in which
she can experience, and resolve, life from a different angle.

Review

What shall we call this. Shoujo Street-fighter? Cute girl death-match?
It's extremely interesting for this element alone, the way it manages
to blend shoujo sentimentality and extremely physical arena combat into
a single package. The combination of action and character, filtered
through CLAMPS extremely likeable characters and impressive visual style,
actually works well. Shoujo people will be caught up in the lead
confronting her own strengths and weaknesses, and interacting with
characters outside the ring. Meanwhile the action people will find the
well represented fights, with a great deal of variation in how they
play out, entertaining.

Indeed the fights are good fun. Angelic Layer is visualised as being
a game in which the players, virtually all female in this series, buy
a "generic" doll and customise it. They configure it's strengths,
develop techniques and have a strategy. They also have a very personal
relationship with the doll, how it reflects them and how they relate to
it. The end result is that the dolls have character as reflections of
their controller (called deus in the series) and have a lot of variation
in how they fight and even how they look as an expression of this
personality. The important point being the fights are a lot of fun, the
fighters look cool, have varied approaches and the fights themselves
have very different tempos. For example Hikaru, the leads doll, is all
about the genki energy and physicalism her owner doesn't have. She's
built for speed but spends a lot of time up-close, even against "heavier"
model angels.

Meanwhile the background story develops nicely. The lead, being just an
inherently "nice" person, comes as a bit of a shock to the Angelic Layer
community. Many of whom end up resolving issues of their own and actually
becoming her friend by the end of the match. Thus opponents tend to become
both continuing characters and friends, in addition to her friends who
don't actually play the game. These small stories tend to be the focus of
the episode, while the larger story of what Angelic layer really is, and
the story behind the lead, grows throughout. It's really rather well done
and quite addictive... if you can handle shoujo in the first place.

Sadly there is a rather severe weakness to the title. The fact is they've
also sacrificed some of the things that make fighting anime great. For
example one element of fight titles is the training, a person focused on
making themselves stronger through effort and conflict. It doesn't really
work here. The lead, imposingly un-physical, can all of a sudden visualise
complex and high speed martial arts sequences almost immediately. Likewise
she never really gets hurt, she's separated from the doll (although she
doesn't like seeing it hurt) and the "damage" is fairly abstract itself.
As a result the power of the conflict is reduced by the separation, the
fighting by proxy that dolls represent. There's just no real sense of risk
or even effort on her part.

In addition the story progression requires a rather horrifying winning
streak on her part. Sure she's dubbed the "miracle rookie" in the anime,
but it's still a little bit too much. In a lot of fights she's seemingly
on the defensive, her doll taking blows that you would imagine would end
the game, while she puzzles out her opponents style. Yet the opponent also
gives her enough time and space to work it out and make up the deficit.
It's all rather unlikely and, once a pattern is established, means that
the end result is never really in question. Nor is there really any secret
to the dolls, or her, that would explain the result.

Production

The end result of this being that the Shoujo and character elements have
a lot more depth than the actual "fight story". Still, it's eminently
watchable animation. There's lots of familiar CLAMP elements, including
the strange school costume designs, but overall it's very attractive. The
characters are well represented, with strong personalities and eminently
likeable (I very much like Icchan as a character). The dolls look superb
and the fights are imaginative, full of movement and sequence to make them
entertaining. Sure, they have to use some short cuts to keep within their
TV budget, but it's still great fun to watch. Artwork is bright, models
detailed, the surrounding world well realised and the motion smooth. The
voices are good, although being both young and small Misaki has a voice
that western characters can only reach under the influence of Helium. The
music is superb, catchy and fitting, with some of the "stadium" music
going straight under the brain and into the spine.

Capsule

It's Street-fighter Shoujo as a young, likeable but somewhat insecure young
girl becomes involves in the game of Angelic Layer. In this game dolls,
directed by the mind of their owner, fight on a game arena. And it turns
out that the lead, physically unassuming, has the potential to be a
master of the game. And along the way she'll grow, make friends by keeping
her joy and empathy alive and even resolve an important issue from her
past that still troubles her. Good action, likeable characters, excellent
animation and a strong shoujo sensibility make this an enjoyable watch.

Other Reviews

The Anime Review has a
Review
which I find to match my own feelings. Some good criticisms are made, including
its use of the formulaic "opponent of the week" format and Misaki really is a bit
too vague and pre-destined as a character. However the fact that the title is really
fun to watch overcomes any problems the title has. (5/5)